Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Headlines Wednesday 23rd September 2009

Orange haze blankets Sydney

RESIDENTS awake to orange skies as dust shrouds city and parts of NSW.

Storm 'may be worst in history'

MASSIVE dust storm across two states pushes air pollution to record level.

Ignore Climate Science, Rudd tells UN
KEVIN Rudd has called on world leaders to make bold decisions to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Mother must give up baby in IVF blunder
A PREGNANT mother will deliver another couple's baby after the wrong embryos were implanted.

We shall remember them - and sponsors
WAR Memorial's corporate deal sees solemn Last Post ceremony sold to the tune of $25,000. - illustrating, again, what Rudd is, after his Sunrise stunt was revealed before the last election. - ed.

'Bullied' worker told 'lunch is for wimps'
SALESMAN sues after claiming his boss abused him in a series of emails and voice messages. - Rudd is paid for his lunches, but not working families - ed.

Aussie navy stops Somali pirate attack
SAILORS intercept a boat of armed Somali pirates heading towards a merchant ship.

YouTube hit as Beyonce sings Halo to cancer patient

A WEEK ago cancer patient Chelsea James was looking forward to seeing her pop idol Beyonce perform in concert in Sydney.

Belinda Neal goes from aggressive monster to doormat
BELINDA Neal given a makeover as she reveals her and John Della Bosca never separated.

Police examine video of wild footy brawl
WILD punches, kicks and players knocked bleeding to the ground can be seen in disturbing images of junior football grand final.

Sick paedos' love behind bars
DENNIS Ferguson and Alexandria Brookes' romance was forged behind jail walls, based on a perverted desire to molest children. Come inside their sick world.

Cops busted playing Wii during drug raid
A SECURITY camera catches police officers playing a Wii bowling game during a drug raid.

You're 16 and you want to vote? Whatever
THE Federal Government is considering a proposal to allow 16-year-olds to vote but not make it compulsory to register.

US Playboy model linked to Sydney drug bust

A PLAYBOY model has been named as part of a major cocaine smuggling syndicate allegedly headed by Bra Boy Wayne Cleveland using Sydney Airport caterers.
=== Journalists Corner ===

Just hours after his meeting with President Obama...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits down with Bret Baier!
===

Why so angry?
Guests: The Beckel Brothers
Should They Meet?
===
Slippery
I would be embarrassed if I were from Massachusetts. Do you know that they took this very power away from Gov. Romney a few years ago because they did not want him appointing someone to Senator Kerry's seat if Kerry were elected President? Now that they have a Democratic Gov., they reinstated the old rule!
=== Comments ===
HE IS PLESED
Tim Blair
Deep thinking from Antony Loewenstein:
The thought of telling Israel what to do is plesant and necessary
===
AWARENESS RAISED
Tim Blair
Better than merely raised, in fact. Thanks to superclimatemodel Gisele Bundchen, awareness is hovering at an impressive altitude:
One day after she was named the United Nations advocate for environmental awareness, Gisele Bundchen was snapped down in Marshfield taking flying lessons in a fuel-guzzling helicopter. Way to lower that carbon footprint, Mrs. Brady!

Tom Brady’s bride, who has campaigned against Amazon deforestation and for sustainable development and even launched an environmentally friendly line of sandals, was spotted flying off in a gas-sucking Robinson R-44 chopper yesterday morning.
The UN advocate for environmental awareness apparently requires a chopper to reduce commuting time between her Massachusetts home and NYC, “where Gisele has most of her modeling assignments.” More from Jules Crittenden:
My only problem is, the Marshfield Airport is just down the road, and the wife reports that cute little blue helicopter was swooping and hovering over the neighborhood yesterday. As much as I applaud Bundchen’s decision to become a carbon Bigfoot/enviro spokesmodel, I’m not sure that combination of supermodelness and advanced pregnancy is what I want operating aircraft over my house.

Think globally, Gisele! … But do you have to act that locally?
I too applaud Bundchen, especially for her line of friendly environmental sandals. Once the number of regular sandals in the atmosphere reaches 350 parts per million, it’s a tipping point, you know.

UPDATE. Helicopters, guns, a holiday home in Costa Rica … this low-carbon future is sounding all right.
===
HE’S A NATURAL
Tim Blair
Even before day one in his new role as Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley proves his diplomatic prowess:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US president Barack Obama are unlikely to ever become the best of friends, according to the next ambassador to Washington.

Former Labor heavyweight Kim Beazley, who takes up his new job in February, said it was not Mr Obama’s style to pick close mates from among world leaders.
Oh, I don’t know. Obama found it pretty easy to pick a mate from this little world-leader gathering:

Not much of a mob to choose from, though. Especially that specky guy who suddenly looked all crestfallen for some reason.
===
DEBT PANELS
Tim Blair
Oregon man Eric “Gabe” Wisehart stands accused of solar crime:
Detectives say Wisehart would take payments up front for solar panel and other green energy projects, do part of the work, then take off.
It’s alleged that Wisehart would sometimes return to work sites to steal solar panels he’d already installed, presumably so they could be sold to the next rube. One of his victims was Marc Sayer, who – ahem – runs a rescue service for deaf or blind Great Danes:
“He was really nice, really helpful,” Sayer said. “He was willing to come out at a moment’s notice. A perfect scam artist.”

In May 2007, Sayer and his wife paid Wisehart a deposit of about $32,000 to install the system.

“We thought we were trying to do a good thing ecologically,” Sayer said. “It would have let us generate all of our electrical and hot water needs. We could have gone completely off-grid.”
Instead, they went off-bank, hit by debt due to the solar charlatan’s shiny salesmanship.
“He knew that he wasn’t just stealing from some rich idiot but was stealing from a dog rescue,” Sayer said. “That’s about as low as you can go.”
Some 30 victims and $1.5 million are involved in the case, which returns to court at the end of September (Wisehart is expected to plead “over-exaggeration”). The Environmental Leader reports:
This is not the only example of fraud in the quickly growing renewable energy business, which is little regulated.
Where is SuperBama and his mighty regulatory powers when we need them?
===
HISTORY DOWDED
Tim Blair
The top ten American political quotations – as recollected by Maureen Dowd, who hears things.
===
SATIRE UNDERSTOOD
Tim Blair
Sydney blog reader PowerPlayer, an individual of leftish persuasion, takes issue with Joe Hildebrand over a recent Prime Ministerial exclusive:
I’ve looked everywhere for verification on this interview and guess what? No-one else seems to have any knowledge of it at all …

here we have an unsubstantiated story (read: lie) about our PM, and a bunch of people who thinks its a laughing matter …

Is everyone missing the point here? This whole ‘exclusive’ is MADE UP. If MR Hildebrand can’t provide some evidence of this, then I am left with no other recourse but to point out that he is a liar …

As for all the people criticising me for voicing this opinion. Do you believe everything you read? are you really that ignorant? this isnt about Rudd or Labor or Liberal - its about people making up the news to slander the PM …

it may surpise you that i was very popular at school. Captain of the debating team AND public speaking champion.

i fully understand satire - obviously you dont. This article is obviously not satire. First of all, its published on a reputable news site. Second of all, Hildebrand (who i note is too cowardly to enter this debate) has identified it as a truthful story.
Joe took a call yesterday from another Labor-leaning type who held similar doubts. Informed by Joe that his piece was intentionally fictional, the fellow softly replied: “Oh, I see … does your editor know?”
===
Crisis in Afghanistan?
By Bill O'Reilly
The commanding general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, has asked President Obama for 40,000 more troops to contain the Taliban. So far the president has not agreed to send those forces, saying this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We're not going to make a decision about any further troop deployments until we know what exactly is our strategy, what are the tactics, how would troops be used, can we justify taking those steps? And I'm going to be asking some very hard questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Tuesday there were reports that Gen. McChrystal may quit if he does not get the troops he needs. "The Factor" has been unable to confirm that, but the McClatchy news service printed it.

There is no question that the war in Afghanistan is not going well. There are three reasons why.

First, the Afghan government, led by Hamid Karzai, is corrupt. Many Afghans deeply distrust Karzai and his confederates.

Second, there are not enough NATO troops to protect the everyday Afghan from the Taliban, so the terrorists rule the night.

And three, Afghan tradition does not encourage democracy. It is a tribal country. There is absolutely no loyalty to the USA or NATO. So we are really up against it in that country.

The Taliban has all the money it needs because of drug dealing and it can pay young men to commit murder. The Afghan army is weak and disorganized, even after eight years of NATO's presence.

President Obama is aware of all of this and he is getting pressure from the far left to get out of Afghanistan. Even some conservatives like George Will want to give up the fight.

But if America does bail out, the terrorists win. It's almost exactly the same as it was in Iraq before the surge. But there can be no surge in Afghanistan without more troops, so President Obama should commit them.

But if this escalation doesn't turn the tide, NATO is pretty much out of options. That will be a disaster for the world, as the Muslim terrorists will declare victory, Al Qaeda will have a big sanctuary, and President Obama will look weak. What a mess.

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